TVGuide.com Adds Tools to Let Fans Talk Up TV Shows on Facebook

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- TVGuide.com, the television listings
website, is adding social-networking features as it tries to get
fans to promote shows online through sites such as Facebook.

The site, which split from TV Guide magazine in 2008 and is
owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., will update its TV
Check-in feature to let users create personal lists of favorite
shows starting today. They’ll be able to tell friends what
they’re watching and have comments post on Facebook, said
Christy Tanner, TVGuide.com’s senior vice president.

The new TV season has seen a proliferation of so-called
check-in websites, said Henry Copeland, founder of Blogads,
which sells advertising for blogs. The sites allow people to
post comments about shows and have those feed through to their
friends using social networks such as Twitter.

“Our users have demonstrated their social influence by
checking in, sharing information about their favorite shows with
millions of users,” Tanner said in an interview.

Established media companies such as Lions Gate and Comcast
Corp. are creating such sites to vie with early leaders like
GetGlue for mobile and online fans and the advertising that
follows them. The comments can create buzz and influence viewing
habits as more people simultaneously watch TV and post remarks
on check-in sites, said Tanner.

In December, New York-based TVGuide.com plans to add
applications that let users “check-in” on Apple Inc.’s iPhones
and iPads, as well as on smartphones using Google Inc.’s Android
software, according to the company.

Philadelphia-based Comcast, the largest cable company, has
introduced a check-in site called Tunerfish, while CBS Corp.
said its TV.com has begun offering the service.

Network Customers

GetGlue, based in New York, has backing from Union Square
Ventures and RRE Ventures, according to the company website. It
has agreements to offer the service to Fox, HBO, ABC Family and
other networks, said Chief Executive Officer Alex Iskold.

Users are rewarded with online “stickers” or badges from
shows that highlight the dedication of fans. HBO also offers
GetGlue users merchandise discounts, according to Sabrina
Caluori, HBO director of marketing and social media.

Television networks sees check-in sites as a way to build
ties to their most loyal viewers, said Hardie Tankersley, vice
president of innovation at Fox, the broadcast network owned by
New York-based News Corp.

“It’s a digital water cooler,” Tankersley said.

Fox signed GetGlue to promote “Glee”, Tankersley said,
and is talking with several other “check-in” sites.

TVGuide.com has 12.9 million unique users, according to
researcher ComScore Inc. In mid-October it introduced a check-in
feature that it says averages 10,000 visits a day, of which 60
percent are shared with friends on Facebook, Tanner said.

The new innovations add the check-in feature to more pages
on the site, she said. Seattle-based Starbucks Corp. and
Burbank, California-based Walt Disney Co.’s ABC are sponsors.

Lions Gate, based in Vancouver, acquired TVGuide.com as
part of its 2009 purchase of the TV Guide Network cable channel.